September 22, 2014

Most of the time, Panel Patter features commentary, reviews, interviews and other stuff relating to comics and zines themselves. However, the only way to create some of our favorite mini-comics and zines is to know how best to construct them.

The difference between finding an audience and finding yourself sitting behind a booth looking really depressed can often be traced back not to your art (which might be amazing) or your story (which might be cool or worth sharing), but the fact that your zine/mini just doesn't look that great.

In addition, I know that many comic and zine readers also want to create their own comics and zines. And anyone who's a veteran will tell you--there's a lot of work and detail that goes into getting it right, even if you want to have a punk/DIY feel to it.

If you want to know the best way to create your zine or mini, then you absolutely must support long-time zinester Alex Wrekk's Stolen Sharpie Revolution Kickstarter, which is entering its final week as of this writing.

Going into its fifth printing, Alex's book is effectively a zine-making Bible, telling you everything you need to know about creating your own zine. You'll get all the details about layouts, binding, tabling at shows, and a ton more. Though zines are extremely DIY--there's no right or wrong way to make a zine--Alex's book can help you get started and give you a jumping off point for your own work.

Already doing some zines? That's great! Here's a chance to hone your craft from someone who has two decades of experience working with zines. Alex has done everything from create her own zines to co-founding and co-organizing the Portland Zine Symposium to running her own shop selling buttons and zines both in a physical location and online. When you get your copy of Stolen Sharpie Revolution, you'll be able tap into that knowledge.

Last but not least, this book also serves as an academic resource. Those who want more background on the history of zines and zine culture will find it here. Past editions of Stolen Sharpie Revolution have been used as a university text.

Now it's time for the latest edition, which Alex has revised and expanded, including new and updated information. One of those sections is where to get your zine reviewed, so you can help get your name out.* In addition, Alex runs a companion site with details of things that change over time, like the dates and locations of zine fests, zine libraries, and other resources.

The main reward here is getting a copy of the book for your own use, which you can do at the $15 level. In addition, for a bit more, you can either have Alex donate a copy to a free library (where people have boxes in their neighborhoods), pick up a cool button, get a t-shirt, or even grab multiple copies for your own small store or zine distro. At the higher tiers, Alex will even help you make your own zine.

As of this writing, Alex needs a little under $2000 to fund this amazing collection of information. It's going to be close, but it's definitely doable. Anyone involved in the mini/zine community really should have a copy of this book, and it would be really cool to see this fifth edition move Stolen Sharpie Revolution over the 25,000 copies in print mark over its lifetime.